Chapter Eighteen
Vanek
One day.
His eyes finally opened after a gargantuan effort. Immediately regretting that decision he slammed them shut again as the bright lights of the medical ward seared his eyes.
“Ow,” he moaned.
“Try not to talk or move,” a soothing voice said from nearby.
Vanek focused on it, the first real sound he’d heard since waking up. He’d stirred several times before, but it was always a blur, nothing making any sense. Now he could latch on to the voice. Was it Harlow?
No, his brain told him after a moment. Not Harlow, but definitely female, and familiar as well. Running through a catalogue of the females he knew took time as his brain ached with every effort to recall detail, but eventually he settled on a name.
Lianna. She was the human scientist that worked with Kyen, an ancient platinum pacifist dragon. It was the two of them who had devised the method to awaken the dragons from their sleep of stone, converting their fossilized bodies back into living, breathing, flesh and blood.
He’d first encountered them upon waking, and it was Kyen who had taught him the basics of the human language until he could converse enough to read the texts and grasp a much fuller concept of the English language. Which, he’d noted sourly, was horrifically jumbled and made no sense.
Which witch? To, too, two? There, their, and they’re? Who came up with this nonsense! He blamed it on writers and their constant need to come up with new words. Burn the lot of them, he thought grumpily.
Realizing his brain was wandering, he brought it back to the original thought. Lianna. That meant he was back at Fort Stark where everything had begun, and not in Barton City.
“Harlow,” he said, his voice a slur.
Dammit. He was still weak. Anger infused him with a bit of strength, and he repeated his mate’s name.
“She’s not here, Vanek. You’re at Fort Stark undergoing some medical tests and recovering.”
He was aware of that. What he didn’t know was why his mate wasn’t here. If she knew that he’d been hurt, Harlow would have insisted on being at his side. He knew her. She wouldn’t abandon him when he needed her. Not now.
“Phone.”
“What?”
His lips curled back in a snarl, but before he could say or do anything more, huge vise-like hands gripped his shoulders and forced him back into the bed.
“Stay put, Vanek,” a silvery-smooth voice said gently, though there was no mistaking the iron inlaid in his words. Kyen was a pacifist. He wouldn’t fight, but he wasn’t above using his strength to get his patients to do as they were told.
Vanek, for his part, was far too weak to fight the older dragon. The Outsider had sucked a lot of life out of him. The longer he was awake the stronger he felt, but it would still be some time before he felt up to his usual tricks, that was for sure.
“Phone,” he repeated, stronger this time.
“Why do you need a phone?”
Forcing his brain to focus, he opened his eyes and stared at the silver-haired giant standing over the bed. “To call my mate.”
Kyen’s eyes flicked over to Lianna and then back. “Is she not aware of why you’re here?”
“I’m not aware of why I’m here,” he said, his fear for Harlow kickstarting his brain into forming full sentences.
“You were almost dead,” Lianna said, coming over to the bedside now that it was clear he wasn’t going to put up a struggle to escape.
Not yet at least.
“Well, I’m not. And Harlow is waiting for me. I need to get back to Barton City. We had a date.”
Pain colored Kyen’s eyes, turning them from a friendly whiskey-brown to something darker, more soulful. “Vanek, you’ve been unconscious for almost twelve hours.”
“What?” He looked around, panicked. “How is that possible?”
“Well,” Lianna said slowly. “When you came here, you were in rough shape. Weak vitals and everything. I’d never seen anything like it in your kind, and neither had Kyen. We didn’t know what to do, so we kept you sedated while we pumped you full of fluids to hopefully jumpstart your metabolism into healing you. It seemed to work, but you were dreadfully weak, Vanek. What happened to you?”
He growled angrily at the admission of his weakness. “Outsider jumped me. Ambush, a new tactic I guess. I didn’t see it coming, and took a blow right to the chest. Luckily I struck back, and then was able to escape. I must have hurt it. I’m not sure. Then I sort of passed out. I don’t really remember much besides trying to get out of that graveyard.”
The room spun as he finished talking, weakness filling his muscles and he lay back into the pile of pillows.
“Food,” he added.
Kyen nodded to Lianna, and they left the room to get him something solid. He hoped it was a burger, but doubted he had that much luck left in him.
Twelve hours? Not including however long it took him to get here, that added up to a long time that Harlow hadn’t heard from him.
“Vanek.”
His eyes focused on the voice as a stout female in military garb entered.
“Colonel Mara,” he said warily. “I don’t think I’m up for any more reconnaissance missions anytime soon.”
“I know, Vanek. I’m so sorry. I had thought you could kill one of those things. If I’d known, I would have had you wait until Corde could get there.”
He laughed weakly, the effort making the room spin, but less so than before. Vanek was growing stronger by the minute.
“If I’d known, I would have waited too. But Colonel, I need to get back to Harlow.”
“You need to rest, Vanek. She’ll be there.”
“There’s no time,” he snapped, feel a minor rush of energy slip into his veins as he thought about his mate, exposed and alone, thinking herself abandoned by everyone. He needed to get to her, to ensure she didn’t believe that, to explain the truth of everything.
“Yes, there is. We’re going to wait until you’re better, then you, Kallore, and Corde are going to go back together and finish this. But only once you’ve recovered. The deadline will just have to wait a day.”
“Fuck the deadline,” he snarled. “I couldn’t give two shits about your superiors’ precious ‘deadline.’ This is my mate. She is mine, and I will not allow any harm to come to her while I sit here in a medical gown with my ass exposed!”
Colonel Mara frowned, his anger slipping off her like it was nothing. “What are you talking about, Vanek? Why will she come to harm?”
“I think I know why the Outsider didn’t chase me after,” he said heavily. “I hurt it, but not bad enough to stop it from getting the rest of me.”
“Why, then?”
“You said it can sense the bond between mates, right?”
“We think so. It’s shown an uncanny ability to go after me and Kylie, forcing the dragons to do something drastic to stop them. If they had gotten one of us, it would have destroyed Kal or Corde, leaving them vulnerable to the…oh no.”
Vanek nodded. “Something happened when it attacked me.” He told her all about the burst of energy and the blue glow that had surrounded his sword as he attacked, all of his thoughts focused on Harlow. “I think it sensed that link somehow, since it was hurt by it. It’s going to be after her now.”
Colonel Mara’s face filled with horror as she realized the truth of his statement.
“I need to get back. Now.”
“But Vanek, you’re not ready. Kal and Corde are out at Fort Banner, doing an inspection of the portal. Corde couldn’t stand seeing you like that. He was beating himself up over not being there to help, so I sent him away to do something busy.”
“What about Kylie?” he asked, worried for his friend’s mate.
“She’s here. She’ll be safe.”
“Then I need to go.”
He pulled the sheets off and slid to the edge of the bed, exposing his entire backside to Colonel Mara, who, despite the gravity of the situation, snickered.
“Clothes,” he growled.
She brought them to him from where they’d been stacked. “This isn’t a good idea, Vanek. I can’t support this.”
“No shit. I can barely walk. But what else do you suggest? That thing is not going to get her. Now, I need a portable phone, a helicopter, and Harlow’s location. Can you do that for me? I need you to find her again before I get back to Barton City.”
She stared at him. “Vanek, no. You can’t be doing this.”
“THEN GIVE ME A BETTER IDEA!” he roared, the commotion bringing a pair of guards inside.
He tossed a chair at them with another bellow and they wisely retreated from the room. Kyen and Lianna returned, took one look at him, and stepped aside.
“Don’t do this, Vanek,” Kyen warned. “You aren’t ready to fight.”
“No, I’m not,” he agreed, struggling into his shirt as fast as he could. “But you don’t fight at all. So what I’ve got is the best we have.” He pinned Colonel Mara with his fiercest glare. “Is my helicopter ready? Do we know where Harlow is?”
“I can’t support this decision—”
“I’m not asking you to!” he shouted. “I’m telling you to just do it! Tell them I overpowered you and forced you to do it, I don’t care. Just get me that helicopter and her location!”
Colonel Mara thought about it a moment longer, then nodded. “If you’re going to do this anyway, then I’m damned well going to make sure you’ve got the best shot at it possible. Kyen, give him your phone, take him up topside, and get that chopper in the air. I’m going to find Harlow.”
The room sprang into motion as he lurched for the door, the movement slow and laggy, but he moved. Eventually Kyen tired of this, and snatched him up. “You can recover in the chopper. Lianna, get all the food and ration bars you can. Have the guards radio topside and have all the men rush whatever they can to the helicopter. He can stuff it all down on the way. Move it!”
Lianna and the two guards outside rushed to fulfill his requests, stuffing the bag of food into his arms before she went.
Vanek, carried effortlessly in the platinum dragon’s arms, stuffed a hand into the bag.
“Holy shit, Kyen, I think I love you.”
He tore into the cheeseburger with gusto as the base leapt into action, all with one dedicated mission: Get him to Harlow.